Nigel Pearson
Nigel Graham Pearson is an English football manager and former professional player. He last managed Championship club Bristol City. During his playing career, he was a defender and played for Shrewsbury Town, Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough. As a coach he has taken charge of Hull City, Southampton, Carlisle United, Leicester City, Derby County, OH Leuven, and Watford; and was assistant manager for England Under-21s and Newcastle United.
Playing career
Shrewsbury Town
Pearson was born in Nottingham, where he attended William Sharp Comprehensive School. He began his playing career with non-league Heanor Town before joining Second Division Shrewsbury Town in November 1981. He made his first-team debut in a 1–0 defeat at Oldham Athletic on the opening day of the 1982–83 season. Pearson's first Football League goal came on 12 March 1983 in a 3–1 win against Barnsley at Gay Meadow. Pearson ended the season with 39 out of a possible 42 starts as Shrewsbury finished in ninth place in the table.In the following season, Shrewsbury finished one place higher but injuries restricted Pearson to 26 games. Injury prevented him from playing at all in 1984–85, when Shrewsbury again finished eighth in the table, but he returned in 1985–86, making 35 appearances as Shrewsbury dropped to 17th.
In 1986–87 he was an ever-present, making 42 appearances and contributing three goals, as the Shrews finished in 18th place. He started the next season, before being signed by Sheffield Wednesday's manager Howard Wilkinson on 12 October 1987 for a fee of £250,000.
In his six years with Shrewsbury Town, he made a total of 181 appearances in all competitions, scoring five goals.
Sheffield Wednesday
Pearson moved to Sheffield Wednesday in 1987. He won the League Cup as captain during the 1990–91 season, being selected as "Man of the Match" in the final at Wembley. In the same season he also helped the Owls win promotion to Division One. During the 1992–93 season he helped Sheffield Wednesday reach both domestic cup finals, but broke his leg in the League Cup semi-final and therefore could not play in either final. In total Pearson made more than 200 appearances for the Owls, scoring 14 league goals – including the club's first in the Premier League, in a 1–1 draw with Everton at Goodison Park on the opening day of the 1992–93 season.Middlesbrough
manager Bryan Robson signed Pearson for £750,000 in 1994. Pearson captained the side to promotion twice and to three domestic cup finals. He retired from playing in 1998.Managerial career
Early career
As manager of Carlisle United, Pearson helped to keep the club in the Football League at the end of the 1998–99 season. He signed goalkeeper Jimmy Glass on loan. In Pearson's last match in charge of the team, Glass scored an injury-time goal against Plymouth Argyle, saving the club from relegation to the Football Conference at the expense of Scarborough.In 1999, he was recruited as Stoke City's first-team coach by Gary Megson. Although Megson was sacked later that year by the club's Icelandic consortium, Pearson was kept on for a further two years under Guðjón Þórðarson, before being sacked in 2001.
Pearson moved to West Bromwich Albion in November 2004 as assistant manager to Bryan Robson, and took over as caretaker manager when Robson left the club in September 2006. Albion won three and drew one of his matches in charge, before stepping down from the role in preparation for the arrival of new manager Tony Mowbray.
On 19 October 2006, he was linked with the Sheffield Wednesday manager's position but instead took over as assistant manager of Newcastle United, replacing Kevin Bond, who was dismissed following allegations he was prepared to take bungs for players whilst at Portsmouth.
On 1 February 2007, Pearson was confirmed as assistant coach to Stuart Pearce, the England U21 team manager, until after the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. As Pearce's contract limited him to involvement in only one friendly before the Championship, Pearson led the under-21s in their 3–3 draw against Italy on 24 March 2007, the first game at the new Wembley Stadium.
When Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder resigned on 6 May 2007, Pearson took charge of the remaining game of the season, away to Watford. Pearson stayed on at Newcastle as a coach following the arrival of Sam Allardyce as manager at the club. On 9 January, following the departure of Allardyce, he was re-appointed as caretaker manager for Newcastle's trip to Manchester United. Newcastle lost 6–0, after a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick, a brace from Carlos Tevez and a Rio Ferdinand goal. On 16 January 2008, after Kevin Keegan had been announced as the next permanent manager of the club, Pearson took charge of the team for the 3rd round FA Cup replay against Stoke City, which Newcastle won 4–1. On 8 February, Pearson left the club.
Southampton
On 18 February 2008, Pearson was appointed as manager of Southampton on a rolling contract. On 19 February 2008, his career at Southampton got off to a poor start, losing 2–0 at home to Plymouth Argyle in front of 17,806, the lowest recorded crowd at St Mary's Stadium. On 22 February 2008, Southampton gained their first point under his managership, drawing 1–1 away to Scunthorpe United.On 4 May 2008, with only one game to go, at home to Sheffield United, the Saints were in 22nd place and facing relegation to League One. After going 1–0 down, Pearson's side pulled off a comeback to win the game 3–2, with two goals scored by Stern John and one by Marek Saganowski. Southampton secured Championship status for another season, at the expense of Leicester City, who could only manage a 0–0 draw with Premier League-bound Stoke City, and were relegated to the third tier of English football for the first time in their 124-year history. On 30 May 2008, Pearson was replaced by Dutch coach Jan Poortvliet after only three months in charge.
Leicester City
On 20 June 2008, Pearson was appointed as manager of Leicester City, then in League One. Craig Shakespeare became the club's first team coach and co-assistant manager alongside Steve Walsh. As well as having worked together on the West Bromwich Albion coaching staff, the two had also played together at Sheffield Wednesday. Shakespeare once said that Pearson was the best captain he had ever played under. Pearson was named League One Manager of the Month for August 2008 after Leicester won three of their first four games, scoring nine goals and conceding only once. After the disappointing defeat of losing 3–2 away to Brighton & Hove Albion despite being 2–0 up at half-time, Leicester bounced back with a club-record 23-match unbeaten run in the league between 1 November 2008 and 7 March 2009, before finally being beaten 2–0 by Tranmere Rovers. He was again named the League One Manager of the Month during that run in December 2008. On 18 April 2009, Leicester won 2–0 at Southend United, confirming their promotion back to the Championship as League One champions. The season finished with the club racking up their highest ever points tally of 96 points, as they lost just four of their 46 league games.Veteran full-back Chris Powell also joined Pearson's coaching staff as a player/coach in the summer of 2009, as Leicester continued their upsurge in form under Pearson the following season in the Championship. Leicester completed a full calendar year of being undefeated at home, before a 2–1 defeat against Preston North End on 26 September 2009 ended the longest unbeaten home run in the country. Leicester spent almost the entire season in the play-off positions and an impressive month of February saw Pearson pick up the Championship Manager of the Month award. Leicester finished in 5th place in their first season back in the Championship, earning a place in the Championship play-offs and a chance of back-to-back promotions. They were defeated by Cardiff City following a penalty shoot-out in the play-off semifinal, despite fighting back from a 2-goal aggregate deficit in the second leg to briefly lead 3–2.
At the end of the season, Pearson took a hard line on Leicester defender Wayne Brown, who had publicly said in front of his teammates – including some of ethnic minority backgrounds – that he had voted for the far-right British National Party in the general election on 6 May. He dropped Brown from the side for the play-offs. During the close season, Brown left the club to sign for Preston North End.
Despite his relative success in his two years at Leicester, he often had a very strained relationship with chairman Milan Mandaric and chief executive Lee Hoos. In the summer of 2010, Mandaric showed a consortium of potential club buyers round the club without Pearson's knowledge and invited Paulo Sousa to the second leg of the play-off semifinal. The club then allowed Hull City to speak to him. Pearson said: "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out what's happening" – suggesting the club did not want to keep him. He then left Leicester to take the job at Hull City and Paulo Sousa was later appointed as his successor.
Hull City
On 29 June 2010, he was appointed Hull City manager.Despite financial difficulties following relegation from the Premier League, Pearson was still able to enter the transfer market, bringing in players such as Nolberto Solano, James Harper, Liam Rosenior, Robert Koren and Jay Simpson. The club won their first away game in over a year at Norwich City in September. Following that victory, Pearson's club broke a 66-year-old record with 14 consecutive away games without defeat. The season ended with an 11th-place finish.
Hull started the 2011–12 season with the club sitting one point outside the play-offs, having a game in hand in the middle of November; however, on 7 November 2011 Pearson requested permission to talk to his former club Leicester.